Freeman, Old Dominion beat FAU; advance to C-USA quarters

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Trey Freeman scored 25, Aaron Bacote added 15 points and No. 5 seed Old Dominion beat 12th-seeded Florida Atlantic 72-46 in the second round of the Conference USA tournament Wednesday.

Zoran Talley had 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting, Brandan Stith scored 11 with 11 rebounds and Denzel Taylor added nine and 12 for Old Dominion.

The Monarchs (20-12) will face fourth-seeded Louisiana Tech (23-8) in the quarterfinals Thursday. ODU beat the Bulldogs 56-53 in the regular season.

A 3-point play by Ronald Delph pulled Florida Atlantic (8-25) within seven about two minutes into the second half, but Old Dominion responded with a 12-4 run that made it 48-33 with 13:54 to play.

The Owls, who made just 6 of 25 (24 percent) second-half field-goal attempts, trailed by double figures the rest of the way.

Delph led FAU with 16 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The rest of the team shot 22.5 percent (9 of 40) from the field.

ODU shot 51 percent and outrebounded the Owls 44-26.

It was FAU's lowest-scoring output of the season.